Black and Red
by trapt-tage
Summary: Hayner looks toward the future with hesitation and insecurity, but Roxas looks no farther than the dart board.


Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts.

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It was a little odd to find Hayner alone in their usual hangout. Roxas was always the last one up in the morning, but his three friends would normally gather and wait for him before heading out for the day. Then again, quite a few unusual things had been happening to Roxas as of late.

"Where's Olette?"

"Shopping. School clothes." Hayner looked up when Roxas came in, but his voice was bored. Roxas had to wonder how long he had been sitting around waiting by himself.

"Pence?"

"His mother's making him baby-sit."

Roxas sighed. "Man… we don't have very much time left before the end of summer. It's not cool that we don't all get to hang out."

"Well, it's me and you then. Feel like going anywhere?"

Roxas thought for a second. They could go to the beach, but there was no way they'd have the money by themselves, and besides, if they played Sharks and Minoes, it wouldn't be so thrilling having only one other person to play with. It just wasn't as exciting if they were missing people.

"No… it's just not as fun going placeswithout everybody."

Hayner nodded and looked around.

"…Darts then?"

"Darts it is."

The two boys had always had the broken dartboard hanging on the wall; as children they had felt cool and grown-up when Hayner's brother allowed them to play with the darts, so when they decided to move their hangout out of Hayner's basement and into the back alley, it had been their finishing touch to make the place feel like their own. Every now and then they would brush up their skills or throw idly out of boredom, but hardly ever did they challenge each other to a game anymore.

Roxas had to laugh at himself for agreeing; he could clearly recall the numerous times he had been defeated. As far back as he could remember, Hayner had consistently been the victor. By the self-satisfied look on his friend's face, Roxas could tell that he remembered as well.

They threw in silence for a few rounds, maintaining a fairly equal score for the most part. As he threw his next shot, Roxas struck the conversation back up. "So what are we going to do next?"

He was surprisingly accurate. Stuck in one of the inner circles.

"Well… we have to make it through this school year-- you know it's gonna be harder than last year --and then I dunno what'll happen." Hayner took his turn. Falling behind in points. Roxas shook his head, sure that Hayner was thinking too far ahead again.

"I didn't mean all the way till next year…" Again, scoring high.

"Well, you have to think about it. I mean, things are going to happen eventually, right?" Hayner sounded bitter as he spoke about the future and his aim was off. Or maybe he just hadn't been practicing much lately.

Roxas moved to collect his darts from the board, tallying his score before he took the handful back to his seat with him. He counted twice before he was satisfied. "Yeah, the future's gonna happen. So what?"

"So what happens when this year is over? And when high school is over? What happens when we have to go to college?" He threw, but if he kept throwing that way he'd have no chance of winning at all; Roxas already had twice his score.

"But why think about that now? We're still on vacation. Don't worry so much."

Hayner barely hit the rim. "Look at you! You're winning! How can you say that everything will be fine if you've changed enough to beat me at darts? You could never do that!"

Roxas didn't take his turn right away, looking instead at Hayner, his eyebrows angry and his lips pouting. He wasn't bitter about not winning, though. Roxas threw. "How do you know things will be bad if they change?"

Hayner scored too low again. Roxas wondered if he was trying anymore. "Because when good things change they're not so good anymore. Can you honestly say that we'll still even see each other anymore in a few years?"

Roxas didn't say anything, but instead threw more darts. They took turns in silence again, concentrating hard. Neither was sure what exactly the other was concentrating on though.

Roxas had one dart left, but he couldn't lose now. It might not matter if he didn't throw it, at this point. "So I'm better at darts. Okay, I change. But I didn't leave you alone today." He got a bull's eye anyway.


End file.
